Synthesis of Ethical Values and Principles from the EATA Ethics Manual and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights

The ITAA Ethical Values and Principles have largely been adapted from the EATA Ethics Manual and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Values are the fundamental basis on which human beings promote their own personal development and fulfilment as well as that of others. Values include reference to natural law that informs how people behave respectfully toward self and others. The following identified values are related to human rights and are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This frame of reference is also congruent with the existential and philosophical perspective of transactional analysis. Many values can be extrapolated, so the following list will not be considered exhaustive by Practitioners.

Considering the range of activities involved, the fundamental values are

Dignity of human beings

Each human being is of worth, regardless of gender, social position, religious creed, ethnic origin, physical or mental health, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and ability.

Self-determination

Each individual is free to decide his/her own future within the national laws of their country and with due consideration for the needs of self and others. Each person can learn from their experience to be in charge of himself/herself while taking into account the nature of the world and the freedom of others.

Health

Physical and mental stability is a right of every individual and needs to be actively safeguarded.

Security

Each person is free to explore and grow in an environment that enables a sense of security.

Mutuality

Each person, considering that he/she lives and grows in an interpersonal world, is mutually involved with the well-being of others and develops interdependency with others in order to build his/her own and others’ security.

These values are directly related to each other and will influence those who provide contractual services in their professional fields.

Ethical Principles

Because of the nature of values and their significance in human life, and in order to guarantee the respect and rights of each person, it is necessary to identify clear guidelines for behaviour that are linked to values. Ethical principles are derived from values and are intended as an indication of how to behave so as to promote the well-being, development, and growth of the individual. They are prescriptive and offer criteria for ethical behaviour.

Using values as the starting point, it is possible to determine a set of ethical principles. The principal ones are:

  • Respect
  • Empowerment
  • Protection
  • Responsibility
  • Commitment in relationship

Within the helping professions, ethical principles need to address many affected groups in order to influence ethical behaviour. The main ones are:

  • Clients/Customers (these can be individuals, and/or groups as in Education and Organisations)
  • Self as Practitioner
  • Trainees
  • Colleagues
  • Human environment/community

ITAA members will consider each value and the ethical principles that derive from it and self-reflect in order to decide what attitude to take and how to behave as a member of the group to which they belong. They will analyse a given situation, consider the influence of ethical principles on their practice, and choose behaviours that take into account a wide variety of factors, including client/customer, self, and environment.

After a brief definition of each ethical principle, various examples are provided that illustrate how it might be applied to each affected group. It is given that transactional analysts will operate within a contractual framework with the affected groups.

The examples are not exhaustive, rather they are prompts and stimuli to enable Practitioners to consider how to apply the principles to their practice.

Respect for each person as a human being, aside from any specific characteristic or quality

  • Toward clients:
    The Practitioner will fully consider and seek to understand the personal perspectives of every individual.
    The Practitioner will assist the individual to be appropriately congruent with their own perspective in a healthy manner.
    The Practitioner will provide his/her best possible services to the client based on the mutual goal of benefit to the client through contract fulfilment.
    The Practitioner will provide a safe and professional environment. Being aware of the power of his/her position, the Practitioner will be careful to create a trustworthy environment and avoid any situation that is exploitive.
  • Toward self:
    The Practitioner will take into account his/her own perspective, difficulties, preferences, and skills as well as prejudices and/or bias, and will use supervision to support them when considering referring clients where it is deemed appropriate.
  • Toward trainees:
    The trainer will take into consideration the learning needs of trainees, provide adequate support, and learning resources, as well as be open to addressing his/her own teaching style in order to attune to the learning needs of trainees.
  • Toward colleagues:
    The Practitioner will maintain awareness of the professionalism of colleagues, and when there are concerns, will address them directly with the colleague. After listening to the response, the Practitioner will make a decision on whether any other action is required. They will use supervision appropriately to support them in these decisions.
  • Toward the community:
    The Practitioner will take into account the specific culture of his/her community and will seek to foster respectfulness within that community.

Empowerment that emphasizes the importance of enhancing the growth of each person

  • Toward clients:
    The Practitioner will commit himself/herself to developing clients’ awareness of their dignity, responsibility, and rights within the contractual relationship/s.
  • Toward self:
    The Practitioner will maintain ongoing education in his/her field of specialisation in order to expand his/her knowledge and sustain his/her professional and personal growth.
  • Toward trainees:
    The trainer will work contractually with the trainee to develop competency and enable them to develop their potential, growth, and well-being.
  • Toward colleagues:
    The Practitioner will respect a colleague’s contributions and create occasions to expand his/her professionalism while supporting them by sharing their competencies as appropriate and within a contractual framework.
  • Toward the community:
    The Practitioner will think in terms of the wider well-being of the community as well as that of the individual.

Protection implies taking care of both self and others (physically and psychologically), bearing in mind the uniqueness and worth of each individual.

  • Toward clients:
    The Practitioner will offer appropriate services to his/her clients, provide a safe working environment (e.g. confidentiality, physical and psychological safety, ensuring informed consent for any high-risk procedures), and hold an awareness of any client’s destructive tendencies whether that is within the psychotherapeutic, counselling, educational or organisational framework. He/she will not enter into or maintain a professional contract in which other activities or relationships might jeopardise the professional contract and will maintain confidentiality even when the therapeutic or working relationship has ended.
  • Toward self:
    The Practitioner will take care of his/her own values and learning process. He/she will take care of his/her own safety and with the support of supervision, decide if/when it is appropriate to terminate the relationship with a client if any physical or mental condition impairs his/her ability to work effectively and competently with the client.
  • Toward trainees:
    The trainer will encourage trainees to recognise their own preferences, skill levels and levels of competence as well as limits in order to protect himself/herself and clients from inappropriate or inadequate interventions. He/she will stimulate trainees to take care of their personal and professional growth and to look at their personal styles to address personal issues that interfere with their own or others’ safety.
  • Toward colleagues:
    The Practitioner will promote the well-being of colleagues and model respectful conduct of colleagues through demonstrating caring, acknowledgement and where appropriate, providing information.
  • Toward the community:
    The Practitioner will provide contractual services to clients in recognition of existing laws of the country and abide by them where they are consistent with the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Responsibility implies taking into account the consequences of our own actions as clients, trainers, , counsellors, educators, consultants, therapists, and supervisors.

  • Toward clients:
    The Practitioner will make clear contracts and conduct the professional relationship in such a way as to bring no harm to the client when that individual is unable or unwilling to function autonomously and responsibly because of mental impairment or intentional reckless behaviour. The Practitioner will not exploit the client in any manner or act in a way that causes intentional harm to the client. The Practitioner will adhere to the principle of fidelity, keeping contractual commitments made to clients.
  • Toward self:
    The Practitioner will consider the impact on the client of his/her position as an authority figure and take care in how he/she responds to clients in order to promote well-being and prevent the misuse of his/her power in relation to clients. The Practitioner will use supervision to support them to provide professional services to their clients.
  • Toward trainees:
    The trainer will be aware of the learning needs of his/her trainees and support them to become fully aware of ethical practices and principles, including delineating ethical issues in training and practice. Trainers will supportively confront trainees regarding any unethical behaviour and will work collaboratively with a supervisor to assist them in deciding on a specific and ethical course of action if the trainee is not willing to change his/her behaviour.
  • Toward colleagues:
    The Practitioner will accept responsibility for acknowledging his/her concerns about colleagues’ ethical behaviour and will take appropriate steps to effect a resolution.
  • Toward the community:
    The Practitioner will take into consideration any appropriate action that will support the psychological and physical health of his/her community.

Commitment in relationship means members are mindful of the social and interpersonal contexts of relationships and endeavour to uphold agreements with others.

  • Toward clients:
    The Practitioner will take care and be mindful of the interpersonal world of the client and support them to integrate with others appropriately.
  • Toward trainees:
    The trainer will provide information and resources that support trainees to consider the interpersonal world of their clients.
  • Toward colleagues:
    The Practitioner will engage professional development that will enable them to have healthy and effective relationships with colleagues.
  • Toward the community:
    The Practitioner will be active and support the healthy functioning within his/her community.

In order to make an ethical decision, Practitioners take account of the ethical principles so they can evaluate various situations and take appropriate considered action. Where Practitioners find themselves in , situations in which it is not possible to reconcile all the applicable principles, with challenging and supportive supervision, the Practitioner will, after full consideration of the different perspectives be accountable for their decision and action. Guidelines for the Application of Values and Ethical Principles.

Principles such as those above provide a useful framework for understanding conflicts but do not provide answers for handling particular situations. This section is designed to be a bridge to ethical contractual services. A graphic is provided to help Practitioners visualize the complexity required in applying the code to practice.

In all these situations, supervision is always recommended; a place where honesty, respect as well as challenge and support are provided so the Practitioner is able to take into account their own perspectives, skills and abilities as well as their potential bias, prejudice so the best possible outcomes are proposed.

A Grid for Ethical Assessment

Examples of how you might use the grid

  • How do I show Respect to my trainees? I recognise that as adult learners they come with years of experiences, knowledge and skills. So I explain a piece of theory and ask them how they might apply it to their field of work; what value it might hold for them; what flaws or shortcomings the theory might have in their application; how they might adapt it to more appropriately meet their and their client/customer needs?

  • How do I Protect myself as a practitioner? I recognise my strengths as well as my limitations. I ensure I have sufficient sleep, rest and nutrition to ensure I am in the best condition to provide services to my trainees/clients/customers. I acknowledge where my skills to support the contract will add value as well as recognising where my limitations lie and how my trainees/client/customers can potentially get their needs met – what other resources are available to them.

  • How do I show Commitment in relationship to my clients/customers? I recognise when a form of challenge arises in our professional relationship, and address this using an appropriate resource like supervision to bring resolution to the challenge.

This grid can be viewed as a potentially useful visual aid for thinking about prospective ethical dilemmas. Its purpose is to encourage practitioners to consider the values implicit in each principle in relation to a particular context, as opposed to it being regarded as a formulaic, tick-box method of decision making.

Ethical decisions that are strongly supported by one or more of the above ethical principles, without any contradiction from other principles, may be regarded as reasonably well founded. In addition to these principles and values, members are expected to consider legal, contractual, or clinical issues and ethical concerns in relation to the ethical dilemma under consideration.

However, Practitioners including educators, and consultants are bound to encounter circumstances in which it is impossible to reconcile all the applicable principles, and thus, choosing between principles may be required. In many cases, Practitioners balance the relevance of one principle against one or more of the others. Likewise, a decision or course of action does not necessarily become unethical merely because it is contentious in the eyes of other practitioners, educators or consultants who would have reached different conclusions in similar circumstances. Even for experienced practitioners, educators, and consultants, supervision or consultation is highly recommended.

Comparing the Previous ITAA Code of Ethical Conduct (5 December 2014) with this Revised Ethics Code

The Ethics Committee’s vision for the future is to move ethics from a position of being hidden and stigmatised, where members view ethics as relevant only when there are perceived negative, right or wrong behaviours, to fully integrating the psychological aspects of all affected group relationships. The aim is to normalise ethics as integral to a holistic TA environment.

This paradigm shift from ‘must do and/or not do’ to ‘living by the principles’ changes the dialogue from Parent ego state which invites compliance (from Child Ego state) to dialogue between Adult ego states.

The new paradigm invites both Petitioner and Respondent to reframe ethical practice on the procedural, professional, and psychological levels (moving away from defensiveness, guilt, fear and/or shame) to constructive dialogue, learning and healing. The shift also supports the procedures of raising an ethical concern and conducting formal ethical procedures.

The 12 clauses from the previous manual were written as follows:

‘The following clauses imply or explicitly state what practitioners must do and/or not do. The aim is to ensure that the process of framing, investigating, and adjudicating complaints is fair and transparent.

  1. ITAA members acknowledge the dignity of all humans, regardless of their physiological, psychological, sociological, or economic status. (Now Under the Principle: Respect).
  2. It is the primary protective responsibility of ITAA members who are providing contractual services to offer their best possible services to clients, trainees, and supervisees and to act in such a way as to cause no intentional or deliberate harm to any client, trainee, or supervisee. (Now under the Principle: Responsibility).
  3. ITAA members who use transactional analysis should strive to develop their clients’ awareness of and functioning from a position of dignity, autonomy, and personal responsibility. (Now under the Principle: Empowerment).
  4. The ethical application of transactional analysis involves entering into an informed contractual relationship that the ITAA member and the client should have the competence and intent to fulfill. When a client is unable or unwilling to function autonomously and responsibly within this contractual relationship because of mental impairment or intentional reckless behaviour, the ITAA member must resolve this relationship in such a way as to bring no harm to the client. (Now under the Principle: Protection).
  5. ITAA members who are providing contractual services will not exploit a client in any manner, including, but not limited to, financial and sexual matters. Sexual relationships between an ITAA member and his/her clients, trainees, or supervisees are prohibited. (Also included under Principle: Protection).
  6. An ITAA member will not enter into or maintain a professional contract whereby other activities or relationships between that member and a client might jeopardize the professional contract. ITAA members are expected to minimize dual roles and to seek consultation from trusted colleagues and respected supervisors when faced with potential dual roles. (Also included under Principle: Protection).
  7. The professional relationship between an ITAA member and a client is defined by the contract, and that professional relationship ends with the termination of the contract. However, certain professional responsibilities continue beyond the termination of the contract. They include, but are not limited to: (a) maintenance of agreed-on confidentiality; (b) avoidance of any exploitation of the former relationship; and (c) provision for any needed follow-up care. (Now under Principle: Responsibility).
  8. ITAA members will operate and conduct services to clients with full responsibility to existing laws of the state and/or country in which they reside, provided such laws are not in conflict with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the ethical principles of the ITAA. (Now under the Principle: Responsibility).
  9. In establishing a professional relationship, ITAA members assume responsibility for providing a suitable environment, including such things as specifying the nature of confidentiality observed, providing for physical safety appropriate to the form of activity involved, and obtaining informed consent for high-risk procedures that could possibly have harmful effects. Informed consent includes informing the client of his/her right to refuse to participate in any procedures and/or to end the professional contract at any time. ITAA members will also seek to ensure the protection of clients’ confidentiality regarding personal information conveyed through electronic transmission. (Now under Principle: Commitment in relationship).
  10. ITAA members will, in their written and/or verbal public statements, refrain from derogatory comments, inferences, and/ or innuendoes that disparage the standing, qualifications, or character of other people, bearing in mind their responsibility as representatives of the ITAA and of transactional analysis. On the other hand, direct personal and objective feedback is welcomed. (Now under the Principle: Responsibility, and equally under Respect, and Commitment in Relationship).
  11. If ITAA members become aware that personal conflicts or medical problems might interfere with their ability to carry out a contractual relationship, they must either terminate the contract in a professionally responsible manner or ensure that the client has the full information needed to make a decision about remaining in the contractual relationship. (Now under Principle: Commitment in relationship).
  12. ITAA members accept responsibility for confronting any colleague whom they have reasonable cause to believe is acting in an unethical manner and, failing resolution, may report that colleague to the ITAA Ethics Committee or Board of Trustees. On occasions when members have concerns about potential cultural, professional, or personal consequences of confronting a colleague’s behaviour, they are advised to seek consultation with respected supervisors to find ethical solutions in accordance with these values and principles.  (Now under Principle: Commitment in relationship).’

Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights related to basic values:

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional, or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it is independent, trust, non-self-governing, or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his/her religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his/her religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organisation and resources of each state, of the economic, social, and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his/her personality.

Article 23

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself/herself and his/her family an existence worthy of human dignity and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his/her interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself/herself and of his/her family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his/her control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 29

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his/her personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his/her rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order, and the general welfare in a democratic society. (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.